Taylor Swift's Album Was Not The Number One Best Selling Record - Despite Selling The Most Copies

The Look What You Made Me Do hitmaker suffered because she decided to withhold her music from streaming services

In 2017, multi-award winning singer Taylor Swift’s critically-acclaimed album, Reputation, sold more than any other album by any other artist. However, the super star hitmaker hasn’t managed to make it to the number one spot on the Top 10 album chart in the US.

Taylor Swift's album, Reputation, sold almost two million copies in just seven weeks

Despite selling almost two million albums, it seems 1,903,000 records purchased in just seven weeks was not enough to get her to the top spot: because she withheld her music on streaming services until December.

Consequently, her pal Ed Sheeran’s ÷ (Divide) album was the most popular album overall, even though he sold 800,000 less than his pop star friend.

With the inclusion of album units through streams, 1,500 streams now count as the equivalent of one album sale.

Swift accumulated 280,000 "streaming equivalent albums" in the four weeks Reputation was available on Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal and other services - but that wasn't enough to put her ahead of Kendrick Lamar and Ed Sheeran.

The BBC has reported that according to Nielsen Music, which compiles the US charts for Billboard magazine, Swift accumulated 2,336,000 "equivalent album units" - a measure which combines pure sales, streaming equivalent albums and track equivalent albums (where 10 individual downloads count as one album).